Lakota Empowerment Group Builds a Foundation for Success
WOUNDED KNEE - April 24, 2025 (Investorideas.com Newswire) A group of expert tradesmen and their apprentices put a new, tin roof on a local lodge as part of a new initiative to create employment and bring valuable skills to the Lakota people.
The Lakota Empowerment Group is a One Spirit initiative, funded by a donation from One Spirit Germany, to provide valuable job skills and encourage employment on Pine Ridge Reservation. The group currently consists of eight students, a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter and coordinator Rick Gray Grass.
Gray Grass said the group got started when he got a call from One Spirit's director, Jeri Baker, asking if he could fix the skirting around a trailer. He and several of the students were delivering firewood for One Spirit at the time.
That simple job turned into working on two decks, plumbing, and electrical work. "The family lived in a cold trailer most of the winter at times," Gray Grass said. "Negative degree weather with no running water and only relying on wood for a source of heat. Now that trailer has two working restrooms."
Gray Grass said they will go back and finish work on the propane heat when the weather is warmer.
They're also working on two other homes and recently finished replacing the roof at Tatanka Lodge. The list of work that needs to be done, Gray Grass said, is long enough to keep them busy.
"We've got a list of three to four families already that need help," said Gray Grass. "We can do it, but we need funding."
While repairing buildings is important to the group, so too is training a generation of tradesmen.
"Whoever needs a job and has a little bit of experience and wants to learn, can," said Gray Grass. "A lot of students who go to trade school in Rapid City or OLC or wherever, those students already have jobs lined up when they get out. We reach out to the younger ones that don't really have that shot but want to learn. We teach them so they can get that experience and be ready for those jobs." "Our goal is to continue the trade and give them the opportunity to do that," said Gray Grass.
"They're learning," Gray Grass said of the students. "They eventually want to build a building from the ground up. They want to repair their parents' homes, their grandparents' homes. They want to help wherever it is needed. They've been volunteering on our wood crew for years, and this is a great opportunity for them." In the long term, Gray Grass wants to see the group grow and expand, even covering two groups of workers. And, of course, he wants to see the group taking on projects within the reservation, improving people's homes.
"We're eager to help," Gray Grass said. "We want to keep families warm and keep a roof over their heads, and these students are trying their best and trying for a better future. We can do it, but we need funding."
ABOUT ONE SPIRIT
One Spirit is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to creating sustainable solutions for the Lakota people of Pine Ridge Reservation. Learn more about One Spirit at www.onespiritlakota.org.
Contact:
Jeri Baker
One Spirit, Director
Ph: 570-460-6567
Em: jbaker@nativeprogress.org
More Info:
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